“Be careful Jack!” said Trey. “This guy may be up to something!”
Squad Leader Brel cursed his ship and slammed his fist on the control panel. He looked out of his cockpit at his port engine. It was leaking a trail of plasma. It had ruptured under the strain he had put it through and it was on a build up to detonation. He could simply eject the engine and get a safe distance away before the explosion but he knew the two human ships would be on him at any second.
All the possibilities raced through the young Zidian’s mind. He saw no escape for himself so he came to a very grim decision. First he started transmitting all the data he had collected to the Krusha. Next he readied the controls to detonate his port engines the second the humans got close to him. He would avenge his dead comrades. He planned to eject simultaneously, but his chances of survival were not good and if he died he would at least be spared the humiliation of having lost his entire squad. He would also have the satisfaction of taking the two humans with him. He was indeed a man of duty, at least in the Zidian sense of the word. His parents would be proud. He looked at their picture which was stuck to the panel, and he waited.
Brel did not have to wait long. On the Krusha, Akdon had been monitoring the situation and had sent sixteen fighters to aid Squad Leader Brel. However, once Brel’s port engine gave out it was apparent that they would never get there in time. Akdon watched his screen as it received the data bit by bit from Brel’s crippled fighter. The plasma he was leaking was retarding the transmission and the data was being received slowly. The screen began to beep, indicating the Humans were closing in for the kill.
Jack and Trey made their final approach towards the stricken alien craft. Squad Leader Brel began to evade as best he could with one engine, trying to draw them in as close as possible. At the last possible second, he detonated his engine. The Zidian Fighter exploded! Trey swerved his Star Sword to the right, barely missing the blast, but Jack was caught by it and his Star Sword spun out of control.
“Jack!” Trey came about and rushed toward Jack’s crippled Star Sword. Please, not Jack too!
Akdon was not pleased. Not only had he lost ten fighters, but he had barely gotten half the information from Squad Leader Brel before he had been destroyed. The mission had essentially been for nothing. It had been a complete disaster. He checked the data he did have. He had received full scans of the human colony, two human fleet craft, and had just begun to receive scans of the orbital base when Squad Leader Brel met his doom.
“Very well,” said Akdon. “The time has come to show the might of the Zidian Empire. Move the whole fleet into orbit.” The bridge crew below him worked to carry out his orders. “Get me our lead troop transport. I want to speak to Brigadier Kondor.”
“Yes Commander.”
Akdon waited, and moments later Kondor’s image appeared on the screen. He was a very large Zidian. He wore a battle armor uniform. A great scar was etched in his face and his left eye was gone, replaced by a cybernetic substitute.
“Yes, Commander.”
Akdon pulled up an image of Titan and put it on Kondor’s screen.
“Brigadier, you are going to take this moon.”
“It will be done Commander. Shall I prepare a full battalion?”
“No, a single company should suffice. Use troops only. There’s no need to break out anything else.”
“Yes sir! We shall not fail you.”
“Very well. Akdon out.”
Lieutenant Jack Thunder was dazed. He heard Trey’s frantic voice calling over the radio.
“Jack! Jack! Talk to me buddy.”
“I’m alright, Trey.”
“Thank goodness. Give me a systems check.”
Jack surveyed his controls. “My engines are gone, my atmospheric recycler is down, and I have no weapons to speak of. I’m running on oxygen reserves and emergency power.”
“Don’t worry, Jack. We’ll have you back in plenty of time.”
“It’s not time that has me worried,” broke in the lead pilot of the twenty other Star Swords that had finally caught up. “It’s that large alien fleet headed this way.”
Trey checked his scanners. Sure enough, the whole armada was on its way.
Captain Doran’s voice came over the radio. “All craft fall back.”
Trey wasted no time. He armed his grappler and targeted Jack’s Star Sword. He launched the grappler and it locked onto the nose of Jack’s ship. Trey then took him in tow.
“Captain, our Star Swords are headed this way and the whole enemy fleet is right behind them,” said April.
“Have all ships been informed of the plan?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Very well then. Launch the Star Swords. Advise the Russians to launch their fighters as well.”
Over two-hundred Star Sword fighters flew out of the Saratoga, the Essex, the Exeter, and Titan base. An additional fifty fighters were launched from the Russian escort carriers.
The shuttle piloted by Sam Grayson took off from the Saratoga. It had been refueled and was ready to make its round trip to Titan and back. Sam and other shuttle pilots like him had brought as many of the colonists up as possible. But Sam knew a lot of people were going to be left behind. Trey also noticed the nearly constant stream of Star Swords shooting out of the launch tunnels and falling into formation. Judging from the way the whole fleet was deploying, it looked as if the battle of Saturn was about to begin.
Akdon stared at the enemy ships on his screen. They were waiting for him. An officer climbed up onto the platform.
“Commander, we are approaching the target. Shall I order our fighters forward?”
“No, wait until the entire fleet is in range, we all attack together. I want the entire Human fleet annihilated and I want it done with a minimum of casualties. We’ve already lost far too many ships in this campaign.”
“Shall we at least send a squad ahead and take out the human straggler.”
Akdon checked the screen. Twenty human fighters were headed back to their fleet and in their wake was a single fighter towing its crippled comrade back to safety. “Don’t bother,” said Akdon. “It’s not worth it.”
Squad Leader Brel’s entire body ached and his head was throbbing as he came to. As he looked around, all he saw was a sea of stars and below him, the enormous ringed planet around which he had been battling. All that separated him from the icy vacuum of space was his flight suit and helmet. By some twist of fate, he had successfully ejected as his ship exploded. He started to push the buttons on the control panel of the transmitter attached to his forearm.
“Krusha...this is Squad Leader Brel...come in....” There was no response. Not even static.
Trey could see the entire Space Force lined up in front of Titan base ready for battle. The twenty Star Swords ahead of him slowed and joined the over two hundred others that were in formation. Trey flew past all the Star Sword and Vostok squadrons. He knew that the enemy was right behind him but no enemy ships appeared to be closing in on him for the moment.
Trey was about to signal the Saratoga to have a service platform ready, but before he could he heard Jack start to cough.
“Jack, are you alright.”
“It looks like I’m running out of air,” said Jack as he coughed again.
“My oxygen reserves must have been damaged. I should have plenty left, but I‘m running out fast.”
“Just hold on there, Jack.” Trey then signaled Saratoga.
“Saratoga, this is Commander Knight. Lieutenant Thunder is running out of air fast. I don’t think he’ll make it to the Saratoga, I’m going to try and get him to a closer carrier.”
“Understood,” said Commander Kelley’s voice over the speaker.
The closest carrier was the Essex. Trey then switched back to Jack.
“Jack, I’m going to drop you off on the Essex.” There was no response. Trey signaled the Essex. “Essex this is Lieutenant Commander Knight of the Saratoga. My wingman is disabled and running very l
ow on oxygen. Request permission to place him on one of your service pads.”
“That’s an affirmative, go ahead,” said a voice from the Essex. Trey towed Jack over the bow of the Essex and placed him on the service pad. He then detached his grapple cable and watched as Jack’s Star Sword was lowered into the Essex’s service hanger.
Trey came about just in time to see the fighting begin. The enemy’s forward fighters had engaged the Star Swords. Trey took a deep breath then headed at full speed to join the battle.
Jack’s lungs were burning for want of air as his ship was lowered into the repair bay of the USS Essex. Finally his cockpit was pulled open and he ripped off his helmet, and sucked in fresh oxygen. Medics unstrapped him and pulled him from the cockpit, a task made quite simple by the fact that there was no gravity.
The medics checked him over while engineers went to work on his Star Sword. Aside from being short of breath, his only injuries were a few minor burns to his hands and face from an overloaded control panel.
“Sir, we better get you to the infirmary.”
“I’m fine!” said Jack more aggressively than he had intended. He then turned to the engineers working on his ship. “I need to get back out there!”
“There’s no chance of that, sir. Your Star Sword has too much damage. It will be hours before it’s capable of space flight.”
“Then I’ll need another fighter.”
“There are no more, sir.”
Jack bit down hard to keep from yelling in frustration. He was safe on a carrier while his comrades were in the middle of a critical battle. He may have been stuck on the sidelines, but he could at least find out what was going on out there. He headed for the Essex’s bridge.
In the laboratory on the Krusha, Kaydan and his assistant were hard at work. Red was still stuck to the table moaning in agony.
“Sub Commander Kaydan, the translation matrix has successfully extracted 100% of the human language from the specimen.”
“Ah finally!” said Kaydan as he worked over the computer console in his laboratory. He turned to his assistant at another terminal. “Enter the entire human language into a translation chip and cross it with ours. I’m still working on the neural re-sequence program.”
The assistant placed a microchip into his console. A moment later he removed it and handed it to Kaydan.
Red lay attached to the table. His mind was throbbing in pain. Wires and electrodes were attached to his head. Red had known nothing but pain since he had awoken in the alien laboratory. Finally the pain stopped. He looked around with his eyes. The two creatures in there were talking in their incomprehensible language. One of them then walked over to him carrying a small metal chip in his hand. Red struggled with all his strength against the force holding him to the table and winced in anticipation of pain. Every time that creature had approached him in the past, it had been to cause him some torturous experience. But it was to no avail.
The creature placed the chip on his neck and it stuck there. A moment later, Red heard a searing shrieking sound like a banshee. His head soared with pain for several moments and then he heard a voice say: “Can you understand me?” Red squinted his eyes into focus and looked at the creature in a startled expression. “Can you understand me!” yelled the creature.
Red managed to croak out a “Yes...” which Kaydan heard in his own language. With that Kaydan turned and said to his assistant “Continue to work on the re-sequence program. I shall return shortly. Do not speak with the Human.”
“Yes, Sub Commander.”
Kaydan then exited through the large double doors. Red was utterly amazed by this latest development.
Chapter Twelve
At Doran’s order, all two-hundred-fifty fighters had surged forward. Trey had flown straight into the fray after he had dropped off Jack. Star Swords, Vostoks and Zidian fighters were all around like a swarm of insects. Trey could see the enemy fleet ships around which they were battling. Trey heard a jumble of squadron leaders on his receiver all trying to give orders to their wingmen and make the attack as orderly as possible. Trey fell behind one of the enemy fighters and opened fire. His plasma bursts passed through the alien’s useless shields as if they were not even there and impacted on the craft causing an explosion which consumed the craft in a ball of fire. Trey also noticed that the alien pilots weren’t flying quite as well as before.
Could it be that they now feel some measure of fear?
Trey hardly had time to ponder this for at that moment an enemy craft dove at him with its weapons blazing then came back up behind him and began to pursue him. Trey did a nose dive and then flew along the hull of the enormous enemy command ship, dodging the blue laser blasts being thrown at him from its gun emplacements. The Zidian fighter did not let up his pursuit. Trey headed straight for one of the large blade-like pylons jutting out of the hull, then at the last possible second, pulled up just barely missing it. The pursuing Zidian fighter was unable to pull up in time and crashed into the pylon. The resulting explosion caused a great deal of damage to the pylon.
Relieved, Trey started to go after more enemy fighters. Then surveying the damage to the alien command ship he changed his mind. He dove on the command ship and started firing his guns. The enemy gun emplacements sent far greater amounts of fire at him, now that they didn’t have one of their own on his tail. Trey skillfully evaded the enemy fire. He squeezed the triggers on his wheel, and his plasma bursts smashed into the massive hull. He alone could never do enough damage to it, but other Star Sword and Vostok pilots quickly got the idea and started to make strafing runs on the command ship and many of the other enemy fleet craft.
Red had not tried to speak with the lone alien in the room with him. For one thing he was too terrified to do so, for another, he didn’t think it would do much good. Suddenly, there was an explosion. The ship vibrated and then the lights went out. He slid off the table and hit the floor hard. The lights quickly came back on. Red jumped to his feet. The alien, who had been thrown to the floor, was starting to get up.
Red’s mind switched into a savage survival mode and he wasted no time. He grabbed a large piece of equipment that looked like a very large, advanced microscope and rushed at the alien. The alien looked up just in time to see Red bash it into his face. The Zidian fell and Red jumped on him and hit him twice more smashing his face and as far as Red could tell, killing him.
The Zidian’s blood had splattered all over Red and everywhere else. The blood was a bright reddish orange color. Red took a moment to calm down. He wiped most of the blood off of himself and then pulled on the metal chip attached to his neck. It was attached securely and hurt when he tried to pull it off so he decided to leave it for the time being. He then headed for the large double doors. There was no trace of his clothes in the room but at that moment he didn’t care. There was an odd shaped button on the wall next to the doors. Red hit it hard and the doors sprung open.
He stepped out into a large corridor that went as far as he could see in both directions. He saw some aliens down the corridor to his left, so he went down the corridor the other way. He wasn’t sure what he hoped to accomplish by this, but he was sure of one thing, nothing good could come of staying in that laboratory. As he ran he heard the voices of the aliens behind him.
“It’s loose! It’s loose!”
It?, thought Red reproachfully and he continued to run.
Akdon was nearly knocked off of his feet when one of his own fighters in close pursuit of a human ship had crashed into one of the Krusha’s four pylons. The resulting explosion had caused power outages and massive amounts of damage. The angry Commander surveyed his control room. Many of his crewmen hadn’t kept their footing and were nursing bloodied fore heads and getting back to their stations.
Damage reports were coming in from all over the ship. The upper pylon had lost all life support and the human fighters were now concentrating most of their attacks on the Krusha and the battle cruisers. Akdon was very frustrated. In a
ll other battles his flagship would have been protected by shields virtually impossible for the weapons of the humans to penetrate. Here his force fields were all but useless and he was taking much more damage than he had ever imagined.
While engineers and technicians struggled to repair the damage and restore life support to the upper pylon, one of his officer’s reported that the human fleet craft were now on approach. This actually pleased Akdon. It meant that he would now be able to use his primary beam weapons. They were useless against the tiny fighters but against the human fleet ships they would wreak havoc just as they had before.
Just then, Kaydan entered the control room and ascended the platform. He had a slight limp so Akdon presumed he had not gotten through the explosion unharmed. “Commander, I have the completed human language downloaded into our computer system and have successfully attached a translation chip to the human specimen. We are now capable of communicating with it.”
“Excellent, Kaydan. What about the neural re-sequencing to suppress his loyalty and enhance his negative feelings toward his own kind?”
“One of my assistants is making the final preparations as we speak.”
“Good.”
Kaydan glanced at the screen that showed the approaching human fleet ships. “The humans have apparently not learned their lesson from last time. Our beam weapons will cut their fleet craft to pieces,” said Kaydan.
“Address the fleet. All cruisers prepare to open fire!”
“Commander Akdon sir!” yelled one of the bridge officers. “The human has escaped the laboratory and is loose!”
“What!” yelled Akdon. His angry outburst was underscored by another explosion. It was not nearly as big as the other one had been, but still sounded as if it had caused some serious damage.
Starstorm (Starstorm Saga) Page 11